


Inheritance

by Yanwa



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Mpreg, Mutant!Spencer, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-09-16 21:20:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16961691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yanwa/pseuds/Yanwa
Summary: The whole world thought the x-gene was passed down through the male line. So Stryker and everyone else assumed they lost their chance at project X's genetic make up when Wolverine escaped. Until they discover that, when it comes to mutation, there is always an exception to the rule. And their hunt begins.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> New story! Yay! I´m already curious what you will think about this :D The first chapter is a bit heavy on some rather free form ‘science’, please bear with me… I´ll update the next one soon, promise!

“Sir.” The soldier standing in the lab saluted sharply as Stryker entered the room.  
Today was quickly turning into another dreaded day full of bad news.

Ever since Weapon X ran away and Creed gave them the slip as well…. It was taking more and more effort to convince the right people to grand their project the much needed funding.

Wolverine’s genetic makeup had been a key in their research. Sure, they had managed to document most of it. But there were quite a few side projects in dire need of tests and this simply couldn´t be done without samples.

They might have been able to cover some of the test with using Creeds blood. They knew the mutants were related and therefore, some similarities were a given. After all, the same mutated gene was responsible for the unbelievable healing factor both mutants had.

But… Creed was nowhere to be found. Bastard probably knew he was the next in line when his brother escaped.

“What is so urgent, Doctor?” The disapproval was clear in Stryker´s cold voice. The scientist was quite daring to call for him instead of coming to him. And he obviously knew it, but apparently still thought his actions justified.

“Sir, you have to see this!” The man nearly fell out of his chair to allow Stryker access to the monitors.

Looking at the screens, he saw the same thing he saw each time he looked at the screens of one of the scientists.

Scientific terms and parameters and curves as well as a lot of colors. After all these years, Stryker had gained some knowledge and could recognize a few basic diagrams. So he at least had clue that there was some kind of genetic makeup compared with another one. But the rest was lost to him.

“And what exactly do I see here?” If the man didn´t provide any good news and do it quickly, then he would dearly regret ever having called for Stryker.

It was almost amusing’ to see scientist realize that not every human being instantly knew what the diagrams they showed around meant. It happed all the time and if Stryker hat a sense of humor, it would have stopped to be amusing after one year, because it happened so often.  
Since he didn´t have a sense of humor, the ‘amusing’ stage was skipped and situations like these turned annoying quite fast. Or maybe it was just his increasingly sour mood reducing his tolerance for any man with a white lab coat.

Bunch of high graduated over paid idiots.  
“This – “ the man pointed to two similar charts. “- are the genetic markups of both Wolverine and Creed. As you can see, they are very similar.”

“You´re wasting resources on something we already know?” Stryker interrupted, causing the scientist to cringe.

“They are brothers, of course.” The man started to talk faster, probably sensing the approaching end of Stryker patience. “So far, we first assumed the mother, Maria Howlett, cheated twice on her husband James with Jeremiah Whitaker. Since the mutant gene is passed down through the male part of the genetics. Then we assumed that the children had to be both from James´ and the first son – Creed – was falsely assumed to be Jeremiah´s child. But… that is not the case either. Creed and Wolverine are only half-brothers.”

Stryker rolled his eyes. Idiot. “So she cheated only once and-“ he stopped immediately. This didn´t make any sense. The mutation came from the male side. They had to have the same father. Or did they?

“Either Creed lied to us about sharing the same mother or the woman got knocked up with two men with the same ability.” He speculated. This was starting to get interesting. If there was another line with such abilities… but what where the chances of Maria Howlett sleeping with two men who had the same mutation but stood in no relation to each other?

“I thought so as well at first. But…” The scientist reached out and opened another file on one of the monitors. “I´ve looked through the ancestry research team beta-75 conducted. We are positive Jeremiah Whitaker was no mutant.”

Stryker frowned and looked at the family tree they had conducted. They had employed specialist in the area of ancestory who had spent many hours digging through historical documents of all male lines. They had found out who the woman in question was along the way, as they ran through all the male relatives of the brothers. It took quite a lot of digging, but they were positive Maria Howlett had been the mother. They had not been sure about the father at first. Looking at the chart, he saw the lines of ancestry slowly changing as the scientist opened new, altered versions of the family tree. In the center stood five names.

Maria Howlett nee Brightman -----married----- James Howlett

Elizabeth Whitaker nee Brunner -----married----- Jeremiah Whitaker-----affair-----Sally Everett

James and Maria´s lines were connected through a line with the marriage symbol as were the lines of Elizabeth and Jeremiah.

Since both Creed and Wolverine carried the same mutation and the mutant gene traveled through the male side of the family, they had to have the same father. So in the first version of the document, it had been assumed that Wolverine and Creed both were the children of an affair between Jeremiah and Maria.

However, further research had shown that Jeremiah had a mistress. And while Elizabeth had not been able to bear any children, his affair – one Sally Everett – had given birth to twins shortly after Jeremiah was killed. They had followed the lines further down but not a single descendant had shown any mutation. It soon became clear that Jeremiah couldn´t possibly be the source of the mutation. Having two mutated children but no other mutated descendants for generations to come was just too unlikely. The mutation would have come through by now, after so many decades. They even tracked down a number of people who were descendants of the children between Jeremiah and Sally. Blood samples were easily accessed, but tested negatively on the x-gene.

So in the second version of the family tree, they assumed that, despite living with Jeremiah as his son, Victor Creed had in fact been James´ son and Wolverines brother. Since James didn´t have any more children, that line had been lost.

“This makes no sense.” Stryker muttered. “Jeremiah Whitaker couldn´t be Creeds father if he was no mutant. It had to be James. If they are only half-brothers, the mother of either Wolverine or Creed was not Maria Howlett.”

Which meant James Howlett too had some Mistress or at least visited other women.  
“Maybe James did have more children.” Silently cursing the team who conducted the research, Stryker took out his mobile. How could they have overlooked this? The teams usually were very through when conducting research.

Even before he could press the call-button, Stryker was interrupted.

“There is another possibility, Sir.” The man said. Stryker finally deemed him worthy enough to read his name plate. Which was of no use. “A587-G”. There were no names used here.

“According to their mDNA, we are positive, Wolverine and Creed are related through their mothers side. And even if there was the slightest possibility of the mDNA not being accurate – Maria Howlett moved with her husband before either Creed or Wolverine where born, she didn´t have any family at all in the area. And their mDNA is almost identical. The mother is the same.  
This leads us to a highly unlikely possibility which we so far had not considered. But following the logic of Sherlock Holmes-“ the man paused for a moment when he saw the look Stryker gave him at that and swallowed loudly. “If we eliminate all likely causes….”  
The man walked over to a chart and wrote down a list of points.

“They are only half-brothers. We know that for sure. Which gives us only two options: The same mother or the same father. But not both.” The man explained.

“Creed claimed that both he and Wolverine are Maria´s children. And according to their mitochondrial DNA they are related on their mother’s side. Their mitochondrial DNA is literally the same, so the possibility of Maria being Wolverines and Creeds mother is a given.”

After writing “half-brothers” And “Same mother” on one side of the board, he moved to the other side and wrote down “same father”, but scratched it out immediately.

“They couldn´t have the same father. Half-brothers.” He switched to the “fact” side again and scribble down “mutation”, before moving to the middle between the boards.

There, in capital letters, he wrote the words “X-Gen from father.” Before turning around to face Stryker.

“And this “fact”, Sir.” He pointed to the words in the middle. “Is the only part that make no sense in here.” Moving again to the middle, he scratched out “father” and wrote the word “mother” below the words “X-Gen from”.

Stryker blinked.

“You´re shitting me.” He said, no longer caring about how he sounded. For years all the scientist have claimed the X-gene came from the father. “Either all the scientists in the world are full of shit – or you.” The General said and sneered. He was going to kill this idiot for wasting his time.

“Or – we are both right.” The man said and lifted his chin in an attempt to appear confident.

“That´s not possible.” Stryker claimed, but the man was not backing down.

“We know for a fact, the testosterone levels of both Creed and Wolverine are very high.” The man said and walked over to his desk. While looking through a few folders on his desk, he continued. “And till now, we assumed it was due to the feral mutation. But…” Finally finding the file, he handed it to Stryker. Immediately after opening, Stryker resisted the urge to sigh. More lines. It didn´t matter. As “A587-G” pointed on the lines and diagrams, he at least explained whatever he saw there. “There is a high possibility that Maria Howlett was intersexed. She – And I´m just using this pronoun since she lived as a woman – was born with both female and male reproductive organs. I can´t say how functional the male parts were, but since she gave birth, we don´t need to make any assumptions on the female part. Fact is … and this is going to sound really strange… she was man enough to be the source of the genetic mutation and the one to pass it further down the line. Her testosterone level must have been abnormally high for a woman.”

Striker´s eyebrows rose in rarely shown surprise. But this…. This was a whole new line of freak mutation. He stared at the lines, even without being able to read them.

“Sir.” Scientist A587-G waited, till Stryker looked up to him. “She remarried. With children.”


	2. Chapter 2

Anthrax. It was deadly. There was no doubt about it.  
Spencer still couldn´t believe he got away with this. Sure, there had been a cure. But by the time they found it, he should have been death. 

Lowering himself into the bath, Spencer sighed tiredly.  
His body still felt weak after weeks of recovery. His mind still felt vulnerable.  
His brain… it ran through the possibilities of losing a member of his team again and again. Morgan would not have survived. No one would have survived this.  
Spencer did. But he was still not sure how much it had cost him. If his secrets still were safe. 

Stretching his long legs in the tub, Spencer leaned his head back against the bathtub pillow and closed his eyes. He had compromised on a lot of things when searching for a flat, but the bath was not one of those things. He needed a tub large enough to sink into the water, without any body parts sticking out. The old one in his parent’s house had been smaller and there was nothing more annoying than taking a bath and having to either bend your knees and have them stick out, having your feed stick out or your torso not covered when the water was almost scalding hot, but the room temperature was not. It had slowly started to drive him crazy. 

He didn´t have this here. As he scooted further down, his whole body was embraced by hot water. It felt like floating. Spencer sighed again, his mind finally coming to a rest in his dimly lit bathroom. His bathing sessions were one of the few times when there was no stress and no constant awareness of people around him. No danger of anyone questioning him or wondering about his young appearance. 

Well, no wonder he looked young. He had never been able to do anything about his appearance. Never been able to grow a beard or built up enough muscle mass to fill his form and broaden his shoulders. His body remained lithe, the long limps hiding the strength his mutation brought him. The rest was hidden beneath oversized and old fashioned clothes and awkward behavior. He was just glad he had convinced his team mate to turn around when the team in charge of the clean up had ordered him to strip so he could be scrubbed down. They had hesitated for a moment and Spencer had seen their looks, but it didn´t take long for one of them to shrug and continue. He didn´t think they would say anything, probably just assuming he was doing some kind of hormone induced sex change and operations. 

He didn´t. The slightly wider hip and the small waist balanced out nicely into a straight line when a shirt or pullover was pulled over it. But when naked, they had noticed the slightly more curvy figure, the lack of body hair and long legs. He certainly was not as curvy as most woman, but his silhouette was not made out of the straight lines one expected from a thin man. A perfect mix between male and female. He didn´t have any breasts and he was grateful for that. It would have made being a male in public hard to pull off and he did feel like a man most of the time. But although he didn´t have any breasts, he did have other female parts, as his doctor had confirmed. The male sex was mostly outward, while the majority of the female reproduction system was turned inwards. Spencer knew he had both and he knew it was not uncommon in his family. He did have quite a lot of relatives being part of the gay scene in the past. Or whatever defined as gay scene back in the day. Sometimes it was just a same sex affair. Later on, when sex changes and transgender became more accepted, he knew of at least one uncle turning aunt permanently after letting the male parts of her being mostly removed and the remaining skin remodeled to look completely female on the outside as well. 

Spencer didn´t want to do that. His female reproduction system wasn’t really that noticeable behind his male parts on the outside and there was no need to drastically remove it and force his bodies hormones off balance. And he wanted children. At some point. Of course, he might be able to find a woman, who would be the mother of his children. But if he found a man… they still could have children. Even if Spencer was absolutely freaked out of the thought of carrying another being inside his body. That was just… creepy. 

Spencer shuddered despite the hot water. Natural or not, it was just creepy. Period.  
JJ’s pregnancy freaked him out even more. He couldn´t help how he felt about it. But he didn´t need to think about having children of his own for quite some time. He didn´t have a partner, so why bother thinking about a child? The thought of impregnating a woman became less appealing after his last attempts but having to explain to a gay man that you were part woman. His best bet was someone bisexual who would accept his male side but also the fact that vocationally, he felt like going out as a female. The ringing of the phone disrupted his thoughts and his bath. Spencer rarely felt like cursing, but when someone interrupted his bath, he wanted to do just that. Reluctantly, Spencer pulled out of the bath, despite being tempted to just let it ring. Still, he waited to long and the answering machine could be heard, dutifully rephrasing his prerecorded announcement of not being at home and asking for a message. 

About to let himself back into the water, Spencer froze when he heard the voice of his doctor.  
“Spencer, I was asked to not tell you this, but… Someone from the government was here and demanded to see your medical records. I have been able to throw them off, they didn´t have a warrant. But I´m sure they will come back. Please call me back.” 

Jumping out of the water, Spencer reached for his bath robe and threw the cloth on, tightening the belt around his small waist. He hurried to the phone but was to late to get it before Doctor Evans placed it down. Determined to call the man back, Spencer picked up the phone. Only to have it ring right again. 

He expected Doctor Evans voice, but instead heard another voice. 

“Spencer, thank god you´re at home. Are you alright?” 

“Father?” Frowning, the young agent leaned against the couch. What was going on? 

“Yes, are you alright?” The man repeated, worry clear in his voice and instinctively Spencer nodded to diminish the worry. 

“Yes, I´m fine. What wrong?” Why was William calling? A relieved sigh was heard on the other side. 

“Some policemen where here, asking questions about you. I thought something might have happened to you.”

“No, no. I´m fine.” Spencer quickly assured his father, but his mind was racing. Was he really? “What kind of questions?” 

“Just… you know. The usual stuff the police asked. How to reach you. About your mother, if you visited her, how she was doing. About relatives you might have approached. They asked about aunt Ethel… you remember her?” 

If he remembered her? He just thought about her a few minutes ago! 

At his silence, William quickly stumble to continue. “Of course you do, stupid question. I just… I thought… it sounded as if you were missing or something. Are you sure you are fine?” 

“Yeah, I´m sure. Everything is fine, dad.” Spencer said almost absent minded while his thoughts were running a mile a minute. Why would the government look for him? First “someone from the government”, now policemen? What if someone at the hospital tested his blood more closely? You needed to look for the x-gene specifically, but if someone got suspicious…. He shouldn´t have survived the infection after all. 

“Listen, I need to see someone. Let me call you back later, okay?” Spencer offered and after confirming he was fine once again to his father, he hung up. 

He left his flat ten minutes later, phone already in hand.  
“Garcia? It´s Spencer. Could you do me a favor?” 

\--------

“We have confirmed another few lines, Sir.” A587-G said excited as he looked over the growing family tree. Some lines stopped before reaching the bottom, but not all of them.

Stryker looked over at the monitor and nodded.  
“How may?” 

“We are not quite sure how many managed to pass down the mutated gene, but we know of a few family lines which still exist. Some in particular look quite promising.” 

A587-G tipped on his keyboard and three lines in the three highlighted, before two faded out again. 

“That line.“ The man pointed to the still active one. ”They migrated to Japan. Unfortunately, the atom bomb hit them right at the pregnancy. It damaged the development. After that, the children didn´t come out… quite right anymore. But maybe we can extract some genetic make ups. See if there is something left of the mutated gene.”

Stryker hummed. Not exactly what he was hoping for, but better than nothing. The light of the first line faded and the second lit up again.

“This line… Maria changed her name to Edwards when she remarried. Then here…” He pointed to a spitting in the Edwards-tree. “… they merged with the Browns. The Browns continued for a while, then one daughter married into the Johnston family and later on, they merged with a family called Lynch.” One tree branch highlighted, drawing a line through generations before the lightning split – rather recently – into a set of strings. 

“The left end here – Daniel Lynch – is deceased. He died of cancer and is buried in Las Vegas. We might be able to dig up a few samples and see if the gene is still there.” The scientists said. “But, Daniel had a sister, who is still alive. She seems to suffer a mental illness.” 

Stryker almost groaned. Damn, did the man not have any good news at all?  
“And now comes the best part.” A587-G almost jumped excitedly on his heels. He pressed a button and another line appeared, separating from the Edwards family and running through a complex pattern of names until they went further down and split in three branches at the end. “This is also an existing descendant line of the Edwards. And of Maria Howlett.”

“What have you found out about the Reid´s?” Stryker asked as he read the names and the scientist grinned.

“Three children. Gordon, William and Elias.” He said, proudly presenting his findings. “With Elias changing his gender to female and taking on the name Ethel.” Pressing another few buttons, the man actually whistled as medical records popped up on the screen. “It was not the most usual operation, because you see, Sir… Elias, or Ethel as she calls herself now, was intersexed.” 

Now even Stryker felt his interest begin to rise. 

“Gordon, William and Ethel are still alive.” A587-G continued. “We can test them but according to medical records, Ethel is actually able to have children, even though she didn’t have any yet. Two late miscarriages let her give up on it, but I´m sure if we took means in our hands, we´d be able to help her out. Gordon is living in Europe, but our team is tracking him down right now.”

This was… more than Stryker had hoped for. They thought the mutation lost, but clearly something was passed down the line. Now if only there was something of that healing factor passed down… 

“And that´s not even the best part yet.” A587-G said, grinning smugly at having Stryker’s undivided attention. 

“William Reid has a son – with Diana Lynch.”

“Come again?” The lines had actually crossed again? Stryker was sure his jaw would have hit the floor if it weren’t for his military training. The chances…. There were quite a lot of branches and names, so it was not really incest, but the two lines meeting again, at the very end with just one single branch descending. Intrigued, Stryker stepped closer. 

“Diana Lynch married William Reid. And gave birth to Spencer Reid.” A587-G continued. “Who works for the FBI and recently… survived an infection with a weaponized version of Anthrax.” 

“What the fuck?” Someone in the room said and Stryker only now became aware that the two of them gained quite the audience in the lab. 

“So, the chances of Spencer Reid having the healing factor are….” Stryker trailed of, not quite being crazy enough to actually make an estimation full in a room with scientists. This… this was almost like a heaven-sent gift, if he believed in something like the heaven. Which he didn´t, but it still was almost too fucking good to be true!

“And I´ve got a cherry for the toping.” A587-G announced and pressed three more buttons. “His doctor didn´t want to give us the files without, so we just hacked into his system and took the rest from the government’s database. Spencer Reid is not only the most likely candidate for having inherited the healing factor, he passed the age of schizophrenia breaking out. And he´s smart. As in really smart.”

Another click and a number of documents appeared on the screen. IQ-tests, wordcount documentation, memory test… doctorates. Multiple doctorates. 

“What the fuck?!” The same person as before, but this time the voice sounded thin and a bit freaked out. 

“Aaaaaaaaannnnd….here come the sprinkles!” A587-G stretched the first word as if announcing a big attraction at a circus. “He is also interexed!” this time he almost slammed his fist on the keybord. Almost singing, as the next files popped up, the man continued. “Male and female and from what his medical records indicate - able to give birth! Bam!” 

Turning to Stryker, the man sighed happily.  
“Sir, with all due respect. Even with the schizophrenia, which we can work with…. it just classifies future suspects more for research or mind manipulation rather than breeding… but even with that, we could not have created a more suitable subject for you to breed and research than this, not without a tremendous amount of time and resources. It´s perfect!” 

\----------

“Now. Look. At. That.” The P.I. said and shifted his camera towards his partner. The angle of the picture was not very good, having not caught the front, but rather a forty five degree angle from the back. But the young figure in the bath robe was still visible. “Not exactly the skinny kid we were told he was, eh?” He leered at the picture as he turned the camera back to himself, not caring that the body in the picture was male. The thin robe hugged a tall and lean body. The belt tightening just right to display a smooth line from the slight incurve at the waist to a defined bottom and the robe ended high enough to show a pair of gorgeous legs. The image was just the right angle to only show part of an androgynous face and the wavy, still wet hair was long enough, it might belong to a woman, if one didn´t look to closely. Johnson was sure, if he showed it to anyone at work, they would guess it to be a really gorgeous woman, if they didn´t notice the lacking curve on the upper body. Maybe even then, if one assumed it to be a really flat woman, which a woman this body type might just be.

Matt, his partner, leaned over and whistled. “’m not into guys, but that´s one nice piece of surveillance ‘here. Are you really sure that’s ‘im and not some bird staying over?” From the description he had, he would never had matched this picture to a thin and weak looking fed. Even if the person in the picture was very lean, with long limbs, they didn´t look weak. He could see the shadows formed by the curve of muscles. Certainly not muscle packed, but alethic for sure. Like the body of a gymnast or dancer. 

John and Matt starred at the picture a moment longer, before forcing themselves to return to the observation. Ten minutes later, they starred in utter disbelieve at the skinny kid they were told to watch out for left the building.

“Fuck… me.” Matt said. His partner, usually very fast in teasing him, actually missed that prime opportunity to do so. Instead, he managed to close his mouth with a snap. He look down at the picture on his camera. And back at the retreating agent. Back at the picture. The feature’s didn´t really change, but… The hair was lying flat against Reid´s head, being brushed back violently while still wet. He was sure the dark rings under his eyes were not visible on the camera’s display. The lips seemed paler than before, making them appear thinner and not as noticeable as before. The dress pants were surely a size to large. They were hanging of his body, making it appear thinner than it was. As did the over long shirt and pullover above it. The clothes were to big and sloppy, the watch not being tied around the skin, but around the sleeve. Well used chucks, a messenger bag and an oversized Doctor-Who-scarf (really?!) completed the picture. 

Still shaking his head, John tried to grasp the change. Until Matt cursed. 

“Fuck, e’s gett’n ‘way!” The man shouted and John flinched before quickly gripping the camera. They jumped out of their car and tried to catch up with the man they were told to observe.  
They lost him in the Subway. 

“Damn.” Matt said and looked around, shaking his head in disbelieve. “Damn.” He repeated again and stopped looking around, before he turned towards his partner. “So… who´s goin’ to tell the boss?”

\-----------

“Well, sweet cheeks. What can I do for you?” Garcia smiled widely as she opened the door for her co-worker and friend. Spencer smiled at the woman and sat down on the tiny bit of space left on her couch which was not covered in frilly clothes and accessories. 

“I´m sorry, it´s just…” Spencer bit his lips and shifted on the seat. There was no really easy way for this, was there? “Dad called today.” He said and instantly, Garcia’s smile morphed to understanding. 

“Oh.” It was clearly not what she had expected. “I get it, you need someone to talk to. I´ll make us some tea and you can tell me everything and if he said one wrong word, I promise you he´ll regre-“

“Stop, Garcia, no!” Spencer interrupted the enthusiastic ramblings. “He didn´t – he didn´t do anything wrong, he was just worried.” 

“Oh.” Again, not what Garcia expected. “That’s good – hang on, it´s not! Why should he be worried?” 

Spencer groaned and leaned back. He was starting to regret this. How was he supposed to tell her the police was asking about him? 

“Just listen. And don´t freak out. Okay? I´ll need to explain a bit, so you know what´s going on.” 

Garcia frowned, but nodded. “Ok. I can totally do that.” She promised and sat down on the other side of the couch, ignoring the fact that she was sitting down on a small mountain of clothes. At least Spencer it appeared like a small mountain. 

“Ok. So my Dad called to tell me that the police had visited him.”

“Oh my God! Is everything all right. It´s not your mum, is it?” The quirky hacker shouted out, bounding in her seat. 

“No, it´s not.” Spencer said drily and waited. Garcia looked at him and then seemed to notice. 

“Oh, ok. Sorry. Do continue, my white chocolate covered vanilla beam. I´m all ears. No more interruptions from me!” 

Spencer felt like slapping his hands over his face. This was going to take some time, so he maybe it was best, if he started at the point. 

“Someone’s trying to find out more about me and my families history. Can you find out, who?” 

Silence. 

“I think you have some explaining to do.” Garcia said after starring.


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay, sweet cheeks…” Garcia said. “I have to say, whoever’s looking for you, they are like…. Super saiyajin top secret or something.” She admitted and leaned back. 

“So, you can´t find out?” Spencer asked worried, kneading a stuffed pink rhino in his hands. Garcia didn´t think he noticed even that he was doing that, which in her opinion, made it even more adorable. 

“I´m not saying I can’t. It might just take a bit of time.” She said and reached for her phone. If she could just take one tiny little picture without Spencer noticing… 

The ringing of Spencer’s phone interrupted her plan and the young man looked confused at the animal in his hands, before placing it down on the couch and reaching for his phone. He glanced at the display and frowned, before pressing the call button.

“Reid.” His voice sounded cool and professional and Garcia frowned as well, not bothering to hide her listening in. 

“Yes, ma’am. May I enquire about Agent Hotchner’s whereabouts? It´s usually him-“ 

The voice on the other side, a female voice, interrupted him. Even though Garcia did not understand what was said, she did notice the voice sounding sharp and loud and familiar. 

After a moment, Spencer nodded, even though the other person wouldn´t be able to see it. 

“Of course, ma’am. I´ll be there as fast as possible.” He promised, before hanging up. Starring at the phone, he frowned again before looking to Garcia. 

“Section Chief Strauss. She’s calling me in. Immediately.” He explained and if all of this didn´t leave a bad feeling in Garcia’s guts already, now would have been the perfect moment to cross that line. 

“She´s not calling for a mission.” The hacker said, already sure of it and Spencer shook his head. 

“I don´t think so. According to her, it doesn´t concern Hotch and she didn´t call you either.” 

“You are not going!” The currently redheaded technical analyst decided and Spencer quickly lifted his hands in defense. 

“I can´t just not go. Strauss is Section Chief!” He almost squealed. However, Spencer himself didn´t look quite convinced of his own words either. 

“Maybe you can call Hotch first. And Morgan. Oh, and Rossi. And-“ A beeping sound from her laptop interrupted her. It took both of them two seconds to look to the laptop. 

“Did you find something?” Spencer asked hopefully. Maybe the beeping was just announcing some program or another to be finished. Garcia’s expression however turned dark and she shifted the office chair she had sat down when she started working back towards the desk. 

“Someone-“ She said and her tone turned offended. “Is accessing my working station. With admin rights.” 

Spencer blinked and shrugged. “So….” 

“Soo…. They are trying to read my files and my programs.” She snorted. “You´ll have to get up earlier for that, honey.” Her fingers went to the keyboard and she started typing. “Not gonna happen, bitch.” She grinned in sadistic glee and leaned back. 

“Uhm… Garcia.” Spencer interrupted and she shifted her chair back to him, looking like a cat that got the cream and the canary. 

“I just trapped them in a honey pot black box. They won´t even notice they´re not really in the system for quite a bit. If at all. Amateurs.” She huffed. Spencer doubted that whoever was sitting in front of her work station really was an amateur. But he or she was probably not prepared for an overprotective and paranoid hacker with way more skill than average. 

“I´m pretty sure you´re not supposed to have a connection to the bureau workspace from here.” He pointed out and she blinked. 

“Oh. Yeah, well… I do.” Grinning sheepishly, she turned back. “And I´ll do you one better.” Typing rapidly, she pointed her sparkling and feathered pen at another monitor which just sprang to live. “I´ll get them right back.” She said. 

Spencer’s jaw went slack as he saw the monitors display. Judging by the angle, it was the camera in her office and he could see two people in there. A man, typing rapidly on her keyboard while frowning and another man on the phone. 

“What do you mean, you lost him?” the one on the phone hissed, before listening. Spencer flinched. He had been followed?

“Well, then you better hope he shows up. Stryker wants him secured asap.” Looking at the man in front of the monitor, he frowned as well when he noticed the expression on the typing man’s face.  
“What´s wrong?” 

“I- I´m not sure, Sir. I think this might not be the real workstation. I think it might be a virtual one, built to resist unauthorized access and lure attacker into thinking they might be in when they are not.” He said and Garcia raised one eyebrow.

“Well… maybe not complete idiots.” She said and returned to the keyboard. Spencer heard her chuckle the same moment, the man´s face lit up. 

“What did you do?” He was almost afraid to ask. Garcia leaned back, smiling smugly.

“He found his way out. At least he thinks he did. You really thought I´d just put one layer in, didn’t you?” The last words were directed to the man on the screen rather than Spencer and she shook her head in an almost pitying way. Spencer shifted his attention back to the screen. 

“-stay there. He might return home before coming in. I want updates on the retraction teams we sent to the coworkers, the library and the park.” He paused for moment and nodded. “Tell them to look out for him when they arrive. If he turns up at one of the places, capture immediate. If not, make sure to bring his team in. I want to question them.” He ordered and Garcia and Reid listened horrified. 

“Oh shoot.” Garcia said impulsively.

\-----------

Ethel Manser nee Reid was on her way to her therapist. Again. 

She was tired of fighting with her husband. But two failed pregnancies had built a riff between them and it seemed that Keith was not as understanding as he had claimed to be. 

Maybe she should have just not told him. It´s not as if she had a real gender change, her female parts had been there the whole time. And functional. 

Still, she was unable to carry any child to term. Tears were starting to build in her eyes when she thought about her lost children. It was not fair. How had William been blessed enough to become a parent and she was denied a child? The idiot had thrown out that gift anyway! 

She and Keith had looked into adoption but the social looked at Ethel’s medical history quite closely and remained silent. Despite that, it had looked good. Until today, when the agency had called and some woman talked about personality crisis and how a child needed a steady mental environment. Keith didn´t even know yet and Ethel was afraid of telling him. Of the impact on her marriage.

Her phone was ringing and she picked it up. 

“Hello Misses Manser, this is Linda.” Her doctor´s assistant. “Doctor’s Parker asked me to call you in order to inform you about new procedures regarding your treatment.” 

Her hormonal injections. Which she had cancelled. Too afraid of losing another child, she and her husband had decided to try fighting their way through the adoption process. Which, they were not going to win anytime soon. Sharp pain flared in her chest. Was it still not enough? 

“What do you want?” She hissed. 

“Ma’am, please calm down.” Lisa said soothingly. “There is a new technology and only a few selected people can participate. We’d like to offer you-“ 

“Another failure? Doctor Parker said he would be able to help us and look what happened!” Ethel almost screamed. 

“Ma’am, please.” Now Linda sounded desperate. “It´s…. look. I´m not supposed to say, but…” She hesitated and Ethel reminded herself of the empathy and kindness Linda had shown towards them. It was not her fault. 

“I´m sorry.” She said and took a deep breath. 

“It´s alright, Ma’am.” Instantly, Lisa’s voice turned soothing. “What I wanted to say, this new procedure…. Doctor Parker will tell you it´s due to his expertise, but to be honest, there´s a whole medical research center behind this. You´ve not only got Doctor Parker, but a team of highly specialized expert helping you.” 

That… hope flared in Lisa’s chest. “And the price?” She asked, desperately thinking about her bank account which had suffered greatly from her medical bills. 

“It´s covered by the center.” Lisa said. 

There had to be a catch. About to inquire further, Ethel opened her mouth, but Lisa already continued. 

“I know, I know, it sounds too good to be true. But sometimes good things happen and I couldn´t think of anyone more deserving than you. And if you want to make sure, just let your brother look through the paperwork. He´s a lawyer, isn`t he?” 

Again, tears were collecting in Ethel’s eyes but this time not out of pain anymore. It was true. All of what Lisa said was true.

“Let me call you back, I need to talk with my husband first.” 

\----------

“We need to leave!” Spencer decided, ready to drag Garcia with him as he stood up quickly. 

“Wha… wait!” Quickly, she unplugged her Laptop from the docking station und reached for a big messenger bag in which she stuffed it. 

“Ok, ready.” She sprinted through her living room past Spencer, who was picking up his own messenger bag from behind her couch and out of the door. Ready to follow her, Spencer barely managed to stop himself from slamming into the door she had hastily closed behind her. 

At first, it threw him off, but in the moment he starred confused at the door, he could already hear voices through the thin wood. 

“Penelope Garcia? I´m Agent Brooks with the FBI. We have a situation, you need to come with us.”  
Penelope blinked and adjusted her backs strap. 

“Ah… I … yeah, sure. Just let me… I need to cancel my date and…” 

“I´m afraid you have to call your date from within the bureau.” The man said. “May I ask who you were meeting?” 

“Ah, just… you know… a guy. I was hoping for a nice date and some ice cream… and…” Garcia stammered loudly. The male voice sighed. 

“Ok, let’s go. We can clear this up when we´re there.” 

Spencer listened carefully as their steps retreated. He did not believe for one second they would not search her flat and his mind quickly went through all the hiding places he knew within Garcia’s flat and the possibilities of being found. Then he dashed into Garcia’s bedroom throwing his messenger bag on a pile of Garcia’s hand bags. Just as he was pulling himself up and crawled into the flat space between the ceiling Garcia’s massive wardrobe, which took the whole wall in her bedroom, the door was already breaking. 

“Living room – clear!” The first voice called out and Spencer held his breath as he scooted carefully closer to the wall. He couldn´t see the bedroom, but that also meant that the men wouldn’t be able to see him. 

Which didn’t help him feeling anything less like a sitting duck, waiting to be found. 

He may not be able to see them, but he heard them. Heard as someone burst through the door. The person paused at the entrance, probably for a first look around the room. From somewhere, somewhat was shouting “bathroom clear!”

Spencer gritted his teeth as he heard them rummage through Garcia’s things without any consideration for her privacy. The legs of the bed were scratching along the floor and curtains were almost ripped from their hanger.

“Kitchen, clear!” 

Spencer felt the wardrobe vibrate as someone threw the doors open and shifted through the space between the clothes. One section after another. It felt like forever until he heard the words. 

“Bedroom, clear!” 

“Study, clear!” 

It took another few seconds until they were meeting in the living room again and the scratching sound of a radio unit. 

“Subject’s not here. Team 8 is heading to the next spot.”


	4. Chapter 4

Since they thought the flat to be empty, Spencer felt safe enough to put some effort into changing his appearance as much as he could. He didn´t know the amount of surveillance but the risk of being spotted was high with only one entrance and the typical fire ladders outside. So in order to leave, he decided on more drastic measures. 

First, he removed the bit make up he used to change his genderless appearing face towards a male one before he used one of Garcia’s bottles of hair dye. Hair still wrapped in a towel, he redid his make up, this time going for the female look. Even when going out as a woman, he preferred subtle make up and natural colors. But now he went for Garcia’s brightly colored lipstick. Heavy make up on eyes and lips was not something he liked on pale women and he didn´t want to overdo it so he didn´t use any eye shadow and only applied a thin line of eyeliner and some mascara. 

Mustering the mirror, it took him a bit to get used to it, but for a day make up, it should be fine. So, next came the clothes.

Garcia’s body was very curvy, so naturally her form fitting dresses were no option. Neither were the few pants she had. 

Drying his now reddish hair with the towel, Spencer shifted through her closet with growing frustration. Until he reached a blouse with a red and black checker pattern he was sure Garcia had worn over a low cut shirt. While it had reached just over Garcia’s hips. Spencer was taller, but his body had by far less curves for the cloth to take on any form. On Spencer it was literally hanging. Thankfully it covered enough of his tight to be decent enough for public and might pass off as a dress, but he would still have liked some leggings or pants to wear underneath that. But Spencer had to make do with what was available and their body types were just too different, so his legs remained uncomfortably bare. 

He was knotting a weaved leather belt around his waist to show the curve of his waist again which would have been hidden if he left the blouse hang loosely and therefore hid the curves which were helping him to appear female. 

Looking at the enormous collection of shoes, Spencer was sure of one thing. This woman had way too much high heels. And not enough flat shoes. This was not healthy. 

Unfortunately, the flats were too small for him. It was probably just one size, because he was able to put his feet into the shoes. But it would hurt and it would make running impossible. He grabbed one of her larger bags and stuffed his own shoes inside along with his own pants, shirt, scarf and pullover. Not caring about wrinkling his clothes, he needed to get rid of all evidence. Then Spencer’s eyes fell on something else. Lifting up a pair of heeled ankle boots, he looked the shoes over. The heel was not that big – at least he tried to tell himself it wasn’t- and he judged the size to be a bit larger than the rest. Maybe Garcia wore them with thick socks underneath in winter? They sure had enough profile to be good for winter. Hopefully that would help him, if he needed to run. He did have some experience walking in lower heels, but it has been quite some time since he did that. 

Thankfully, the shoes fit well enough and Spencer looked into the mirror in Garcia’ closet. Good enough. And maybe adding additional height was not the worst idea. These guys would have to have a description and these extra inches might help throw them off. Somehow, in his own mind, that sounded way too desperate for his liking. 

Spencer rushed back to her bathroom, before throwing the make up he had used into a duty bag that also went into one of Garcia’s hand bags along with his wallet, keys, gun, badge and his switched off mobile. One last look into the mirror showed him a lean woman with wavy red hair that almost reached her shoulders. 

It had to be good enough. 

\-----

It was good enough. Spencer even saw the men ordered to observe Garcia’s flat. They looked discretely down, probably into a file with his picture and description before they noticed him. Spencer felt like his heart was going to burst from adrenaline when he saw the man looking him up and down. 

‘Fuck!’ Spencer cursed mentally when the man was pushing his partner to get his attention and pointed to Spencer. Ready to run the moment they moved, he tensed up until… 

“Hey baby!” The man shouted and whistled appreciatively. 

Seriously?! He couldn´t help himself. He stopped and starred at the man. Who was now grinning charmingly.

“What does a lovely thing like you do walking down a street by herself?” He grinned. “A woman like you needs some company, darling. And I´d like to offer my services.” 

This… did not just happen. Still speechless, Spencer was shaking his head. At least it was not suspicious when he walked away a little faster now. 

“Oh, come on, don´t be like that! Hey, what´s your name? Ouch –what?” The last part was much less loud and if it weren’t for his senses, Spencer would not have heard it. 

“We´re here for a job, Dan!” The other man hissed. 

\--- 

Spencer decided to stay in disguise a bit longer. But he did buy a pair of dark grey skinny jeans and a jacket with a hood, paying everything in cash. The shoes proved to be surprisingly comfortable and he had been able to make a few trial runs and jumps. So he left them on. 

Putting on the additional clothes was more comfortable and attracted far less attention. Seriously, how could women bear this? Naked legs seemed to be an open invitation for all kinds of bad pick up lines and after just one hour, Spencer was absolutely sick of it. 

The bag of clothes as well as his mobile phone went into a locker at the mall to pick up later. No sense in carrying around those. 

He also bought two burner phones, but looking into his wallet, he took note of how much money was left. It should be enough for a cab across the city. He knew exactly he needed to go. And he had a name to look up. 

‘Stryker wants him secured asap’ the man had said. So his next steps were to find out more about the man hunting him. 

\----

“Look at you!” Bradley Wilks whistled and earned himself a death glare. It only caused Bradley to shrug. “You´ve never dressed up like this when we were dating!” He said in a much calmer tone, a strange mix between apologizing and reproachful. 

“Not now, Brad.” Spencer said and flopped down on the chair in front of Bradley’s desk. The way his ex-boyfriend was looking at him now was making him uncomfortable and reminded Spencer of the reason, why he broke up their beginning relationship before it really became one. They had been on four dates and Spencer had not really felt like Brad was the right guy for him. Bradley himself had not quite agreed on that, but after some time, things had calmed down. 

At least Spencer had thought they had quieted down enough, but maybe coming here dressed up like that had not been the best idea. But Spencer was lacking alternatives. 

“I need a favor. And don’t start-“ 

“Anything for you, darling.” Bradley grinned. 

“-flirting.” Spencer deadpanned. Another reason why he didn´t really feel comfortable dating Brad, but if Spencer was honest with himself, that one was his fault. It wasn´t Brad’s fault that he couldn´t deal with flirting and compliments. Somehow, Bradley had never managed to make Spencer feel comfortable in receiving his compliments. 

Bradley’s smile widened and just like that Spencer was reminded why he did agree to date him in the first place. 

Swallowing, Spencer quickly averted his eyes and reached for the handbag. When his eyes fell on the burner phones, he paused and looked at Brad again. 

“On the other hand… I think you should flirt.”

“Huh?” 

\----

Garcia flinched, when all eyes fell on her. One of the men in the office brought her ringing phone over and she was ordered to put it on speaker. 

Silently praying, the BAU’s technical analyst looked at the phone. It was not a number she recognized, but she didn´t have a choice anyway. 

“Penelope Garcia.” It was not one of her usual greetings, but with all eyes on her, she didn´t really feel the vibe. 

“Hello, darling. It´s me, Brad.” A male voice sounded and a few people in the room blinked confused, while Emily, J.J. and Morgan suddenly grinned. 

Garcia almost asked ‘Who?’, but the man continued quickly. 

“I´m at this nice café at the 14th St NW, waiting for a gorgeous woman who I hoped would share some ice cream with me.” The man said, the smooth voice sending shivers down Garcia’s spine. 

She didn´t have a date, it had just been an excu- oh. Garcia grinned. Spencer had heard her. And he asked this guy to call her, making sure it was not his voice being heard. She had known her vanilla cupcake was smart. What she hadn´t known was that Spencer knew a guy with such a nice voice and easy flirting. 

“Well, honey. You know how it is. For the best things, you have to wait the longest.” Feeling her mood lightening, Garcia raised one eyebrow to the guy who had picked her up from her flat in an ‘I told you so’-gesture, before returning her attention to the phone. 

“I´m afraid, some men at my work are just as eager for my company as you are. It will take a bit to get out of here.” 

Agent Brooks, who had brought Garcia to the bureau, frowned and whispered some orders to the technician next to him. 

An easy laugh sounded through the speaker. 

“Then I have to make sure you know these men are no competition, darling. How about I prove it to you this evening?” 

Looking over to the man in charge, Garcia raised an eyebrow in question. Technically, they couldn´t hold her forever without any pressing charges. And these guys did not appear to be the kind of people who did things officially. Looking sour, Agent Brooks sent a look to his own technical analyst who gave him a nod. 

Taking things into her own hands, Garcia picked up the phone again. 

“Let´s say I meet you at seven at…” She trailed off. 

“… Tortino´s?” The man offered and Garcia nodded even though the man couldn´t see it. Spencer must have told him about one of her favorite Italian places. Quickly confirming the place, she was fast to hang up. 

All of her colleagues were looking at her in various degrees of curiosity, from mild interest to obvious nosiness. They all knew she was not dating anyone. 

Agent Brooks however frowned and opened his mouth, probably to inform Garcia that he had not approved of anyone leaving but Garcia beat him to it by quickly pointing out: 

“Well, I´ve got my date rescheduled. So, you´ve got any more questions or….?”

 

\----

“I like her.” Brad said, looking at his phone. “She´s feisty.” Then he noticed Spencer’s glare and grinned. “Jealous?” His voice sounded incredibly smug, but the grin quickly vanished when Spencer growled out: 

“Garcia is like family to me, Brad. Don´t you dare to mess with her.” 

Quickly lifting his hands in an innocent gesture, Brad was quick to reassure the man in front of him. 

“Keep your claws in, darling. You told me to flirt with her and if it turns out I like her, there´s nothing wrong with that!” 

“As long as it´s genuine and you don´t mess with her.” Spencer added. He didn´t want Brad to get interested in screwing with Garcia, but he guesses he should not have been surprised her witty personality was intriguing for Brad. But the man was a rather easygoing flirt after all and he did not want to be responsible for setting Garcia up for heartbreak. 

For a moment, Brad appeared unsure, but it didn´t hold for long. Brad stood up and held out a hand for Spencer to pull him up. 

“Ok, let’s get you inside and I´ll see what I can find out about this Stryker guy you told me.” 

That finally brought a smile to Spencer’s face and he took the offered hand. Which was quick to pull him in so Brad could place a hand on Spencer’s waist. It was quickly removed when Spencer growled at him. The young profiler was clearly stressed if he was letting his nature get out so easily. 

Thankfully, the little outburst earned him a bit of distance as Brad let Spencer through various corridors into what appeared to be an abandoned part of the building. At least until they reached a trapdoor with a very dark tunnel. 

Spencer’s eyebrows rose but he sighed tiredly. Why did it always had to be some trapdoor or cellars or dark corridors which lead to mutant hide outs? But he was not going to complain, considering there was a safe place waiting for him down there with books, a shower and some of the money he´s given Brad over the time to store for mutants who needed help. It was kind of ironic that he himself was now in need of one of the safe houses he helped to set up. 

 

\----

“I apologize for the inconvenience.” Agent Brooks said as he sat down in front of the team. It was unusual to be interviewed as a team, but every single profile in the room knew what this was about. This conversation was recorded and would be viewed over and over again by someone who would look for all forms of silent communication between the team members. 

He was met with expecting glances from J.J. and Emily, a guarded look from Morgan, something that appeared to be mild interest from Rossi, as well as one of Aaron Hotchner’s impressive poker faces. Garcia didn´t the expression on her own face but she desperately hoped not to screw it up. 

Even Section Chief Strauss was attending this meeting but her expression appeared to be carefully guarded as well, so although one knew she was keeping her thoughts to herself, it was unclear of what these thoughts were. 

“It´s no problem.” Strauss assured the men in what Garcia called her voice of political reassurance. So, this guys must at least have some kind of influence for her to play this part. Garcia was sure the team must have noticed they were one member short, but no one commented on it. Which – a least to Garcia – was a clear sight of the team sticking together with their missing member. 

“I understand some of you might have already made plans and I know it is your day off.” Agent Brooks said after a quick glance to Strauss. “But it is a very important matter, so there was unfortunately no way around this.” 

After receiving no reaction, Brooks leaned back and sighed. “Does any of you know the whereabouts of Agent Reid?” He asked and looked into their faces. When his gaze shifted to Garcia, she did her best to not fidget or appear guilty in any kind. And it was true, she had no clue where Spencer currently was. He must have gotten out of her flat to contact the man who called her. Garcia had no idea how he did it, she hat seen the surveillance van parked outside her building. But she felt a bit of schadenfreude over the fact that Spencer had slipped through their grasps.

“I called him in, but as you can see, Agent Reid is not attending this meeting.” Strauss admitted disapprovingly. 

“May I suggest…” Rossi’s calm voice had its ever-soothing effect. “Maybe it is time to tell us what this is about?” 

Agent Brooks instantly straightened himself. “Of course. I´m afraid to say we have intel that someone in the bureau is cooperating with mutant terrorist groups. Groups which in the past have initiated violent attacks on the government.” 

“And by someone you are implying someone in this team.” Hotch added, his voice gaining a hardened edge. For him, it must be obvious who they were referring to. None of them had been arrested, but the foreign team showed define interest in this exact team. And only one person was missing. 

Strauss sucked in her breath sharply and frowned when the whole team seemed to tense up. 

Noticing their reactions, Brooks remained silent for another few seconds, before he nodded. Even though all or BAU-Teams expressions remained the same, Garcia knew they were more guarded now. She could see it in their eyes. 

“Do you have any proof of that fact, Agent?” Strauss cool voice sounded out and for a moment, Garcia was surprised over what appeared to be support from their section chief. Or maybe it was just Strauss trying to gain more information on the situation. That sounded far more like her. 

Brooks again looked at each member of the group, before he sighed. 

“Look, I´m not your enemy.” He said and Garcia would have snorted, if it wouldn´t have made her suspicious. “But it seems, that Agent Reid had some contact with a number of known mutant supporters. That on itself is not a crime, but we are worried over the fact that Agent Reid… neglected to mention in his files that he himself is a mutant.” 

This time, there was a clear reaction from all the members. Garcia herself knew she had sucked in her breath and for a moment, she couldn´t help but feel betrayed that Spencer had not mentioned it. Until Hotch’s neutral voice pointed out: 

“It´s not required to register as a mutant.” He said, his eyes fixated on Agent Brooks who now shifted his attention to the team leader. 

“No, it´s not.” Did the unspoken ‘yet’ come from her imagination or was the silent message as clear to everyone as it was to her? “Have you been aware of that fact, Agent Hotchner?” 

“He didn’t tell me, if that is what you are implying.” Hotch answered… without actually answering. 

The rest of the team must have picked up on this as well. 

“Now, it´s not a crime to be a mutant.” Morgan said. “It´s also to be expected of a mutant to contact pro-mutant organizations.” The dark skinned agent pointed out. Garcia felt a flash of worry. This sounded as if Morgan was talking about any person and not a friend. Maybe he didn´t take well to being hit with such a surprise message. 

“No, it´s not.” Brooks repeated and quickly raised his hand when Prentiss was about to add her part to the discussion. Probably backing up Hotch´s approach the same way Morgan did. “Look, you´ve got the wrong impression here. I´m not here to… I don´t know what you think I want to do. As I said, I´m not your enemy. But we have been looking into Agent Reid´s records….” 

And most likely that also explained who looked into Reid´s medical history. Which did not really answer the question since none of them knew who the hell these men were. 

“And I´m sure you had a warrant for that.” Strauss pointed out before Hotch could, but Brooks ignored them both as he continued in a much more exasperated manner. 

“… and we are not questioning Doctor Reid´s loyalty. The man just recovered from Anthrax, for heaven’s sake.”

The sudden silence was even more noticeable after the recent protests and Brooks took a deep breath to calm himself. 

“At least I don´t do so. I´ve seen his file. In my eyes, Agent Reid risked his live more than once for others no matter if mutant or not and that´s why I think your fellow agent might have gotten himself into a mess he himself is not quite aware of.” The agent gave them an apologizing smile. “Again, I apologize for the way this is handled. But here are other procedures we need to fulfill. And there are some people a few paygrades above mine who are suspicious.” Again, he lifted both hands to counter the protest which was not really coming, as most of the room seemed to listen carefully. “But that´s another reason why I need to find Agent Reid. This needs to be stopped and I can´t promise there won´t be any repercussions, but I do believe Agent Reid should have the chance to answer those suspicions and clear things up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much longer until the X-Men get involved :) I´m just no fan of rushing things and I do like to build up believable plots. I hope you like it?


	5. Chapter 5

 The attack came half an hour after Brad left and it didn´t leave much time for any of them to do anything.

The hide out Spencer had been brought to was not just for him, but there were other mutants there in what appeared to be a living room with various rooms.

“Oh, it´s you!” One of the boys quickly stood up and rushed over to Spencer.

“Dylan.” Spencer smiled and returned the eager hug. He had directed Dylan to Brad after meeting the runaway boy on a case. The obvious mutation had made it hard for the boy to life on the streets with his slightly transparent skin. The hint of underlying blood vessels, muscles and bones one could see if they looked just close enough was rather creepy, even for mutant standards. Coupled with Dylan’s very affectionate nature and cravings for attention, it had made his life very hard for him.

Another mutant looked up from the couch and eyed Spencer curiously. A not quite human nose was moving as the girl tilted her head towards him.

“You´re some kind of feral?” The girl asked, looking Spencer up and down as if looking for obvious physical mutations. Now Dylan stepped back and took his own turn at looking at Spencer.

“Whoa… you look really different!” He said. “I knew something was off, but… you look like a girl!”

“That´s a guy?!” A shocked voice entered the conversation from across the room. The man held a plate in his hand and had obviously just left the kitchen.

“That´s a… “ The girl sniffled again. “I´m not sure. You smell like none… both… kinda.”

“What the-“ The man from the kitchen shook his head, looking at the agent in an incredulous way.

Spencer’s smile turned painful.

“Good thing none of you work with my colleagues.” He said and moved over to the couch. “Anything else you might want to add?” The asked the girl, rather curious what else she could smell. But she seemed to take his words as a scolding because she ducked her head. Something in her hair was moving and Spencer suspected her ears might not look really human as well.

“Sorry.” She said, but Spencer shook his head.

“I didn´t mean it like that.” He assured her, only now noticing how his words might have been received. The girl looked up carefully and seeing no disapproval, she smiled slowly.

“Why are you here?” Dylan asked. “Did you bring someone new?” He looked past Spencer to the door. When he saw no one, his gaze returned to Spencer and he seemed to think about the situation before coming to the conclusion:

“You’re here to hide.” Immediately, he pulled Spencer over to the couch, pushing him down on the couch next to the girl who appeared to be fascinated by his smell, as she scooted closer and took a deep breath. Spencer flinched away from the sudden intrusion, immediately regretting his reaction when she hastily moved back. Thankfully, Dylan prevented this from becoming even more awkward, as the boy literally fretted.

“Are you in trouble? Is someone after you?” He tried to find out. The man with the plate sat down across from them and offered the plate to Spencer, which earned him a grateful smile.

“No, thank you.” It was a nice gesture to offer food to a new arrival. Especially since a lot of the mutants coming here were indeed in desperate need of a meal. But Spencer’s last meal was only a few hours ago and he wasn´t hungry.

Shrugging, the man took the plate back and placed it on his lap. Offering his hand, he said:

“I´m Shadow.” When Spencer, instead of taking his hand, gave small wave, he frowned. But he didn´t comment on it and after being offered a plate and having his quirks overlooked, Spencer suspected Shadow – which had to be a code name – might either have siblings or was familiar with victims of abuse. He didn´t think the man himself had been abused, but he knew what to look out for.

For a moment, he considered offering his real name – Dylan knew it anyway – but then thought better of it. Stryker was searching for Dr. Spencer Reid, so if there was a mole anywhere, he couldn´t give up his real name.

“Margay.” He offered instead, a name his first mutant friend Ethan had picked out for him. Back then, when his feral traits had manifested Ethan had enjoyed naming him after a feline race. Having no better suggestion, Spencer just shrugged and that was it.

“That´s a feline race!” The girl said with a big smile. “I was right. What traits do you have? Do you have claws? Or a tail? Do you grow fur?” She asked excited. “I haven´t met many ferals yet.”  

It brought a small smile on Dylan’s face, who had first met Spencer as Dr. Reid from the FBI.

“His claws are soo cool.” Dylan said to the girl, having seen the growing and retreating nails himself as Spencer tried to prove to him that he too was a mutant and could be trusted. “They grow out of his fingers, just like a cat’s. And they retreat.”

Shadow instantly appeared uncomfortable and wary. It was immediately noticed by the girl, who has not introduced herself yet and she looked at him in question.

“Reminds me of someone I met once. Another feral, Sabretooth. That guy was just… not very pleasant.” Shadow said.

“Sabretooth is a very dangerous criminal.” Spencer now paid closer attention to the man. If Shadow managed to survive an unpleasant encounter with Sabretooth, his powers had to be very effective.

Shadow just shrugged and quickly shoved some food into his mouth. Very obviously an attempt to avoid answering any question.

“Well, I haven´t introduced myself yet.” The girl suddenly said. “I’m –“ She stopped when Shadow suddenly raised his hand, looking at the door.

“Someone´s coming.” He said.

“Wow, it´s busy today.” Dylan said, standing up to greet the new arrival, clearly expecting another mutant. Spencer gripped his arm and pulled him down again. Shadow’s behavior was more alarmed that it should be if he didn´t expect trouble. He had been very relaxed when Spencer had come in so something must have ticked him off.

“They are armed.” The girl said quietly after a pair of furred, pointy hears popped out of her hair. “I can hear them pull back safeties. Thy are whispering.” She said, fear making her voice even smaller. “They are here for something. A target.” A sharp inhale in her breath lead to a sudden shiver. “They don´t care what happens to the rest!” She looked ready to bail, but the man next to her grabbed her and pulled her closer to himself and down.

As one, they shifted off the couch, moving down to find cover behind the couch and armchair.

 Spencer quickly grasped his own weapon, while pushing Dylan behind himself. Now that all of them were quiet, faint steps of multiple pairs of shoes could be heard. Quick, but carefully light steps. No more talking. They must use hand signs, Spencer realized. He could see shadows move as the men came closer to the door and  he quickly ducked further down behind the couch to be out of sight. He could still hear them though. 

The group split off at the door. Part of them moved on, but two men entered the room. Spencer’s gaze shifted to Shadow, as he gripped his gun in a well trained move, but the dark haired man was shaking his head. His own body was protecting the girl’s, much like Spencer was keeping Dylan behind himself.

As he watched, Shadow’s dark eyes darkened completely, iris and pupil both so dark they seemed like one. The next moment, one of the men stumbled over… nothing. He quickly tried to regain his footing, but didn´t manage and fell- right in front of Spencer. He didn´t have enough time to shout out when he saw them, being hit in the face by the back of Spencer’s gun. 

His partner was quick to turn to him, leaving him open for an ambush from behind. It gave Shadow an opening the man took as fast as he could, throwing an arm around the man’s neck from behind to try and suffocate him.

It was not fast enough to prevent a shout of alarm ringing through the entire hide out.

 

* * *

  

“She knows something.” Brooks said as he viewed the video from their discussion. “The technical analyst. He´s been biting her lips after I told them their coworker might be in trouble without meaning to.”

Agent Samuels nodded her head, looking at Garcia.

“They are all very defensive of Reid.” She said. “It´s good she´s no trained profiler or we wouldn´t have anything. She´s the key to the group.”

“They love him.” Another man said. Thomas was not an agent, but he was working with them. Looking at the monitor instead of the two others who were now looking at him, he continued. “In a way family would. That one…” he pointed to Rossi. “I´d say a nephew. Or even a grandson.”

Then his finger wandered further.

“She things of him as a brother. He does too.” He pointed first at the blonde woman – Jennifer Jareau- and then at the dark skinned man- Derek Morgan. Then he looked at Prentiss.

“She´s loyal to all of them, even though the bond is not yet as deep as with the rest. She will honor her loyalty, even if she´s the newest member.”

 Looking over to the unit chief, he was silent for a few seconds.

“He´s a complicated one. I´d guess he´s a father and projecting a bit of fatherly affection towards Reid. But that´s just on the surface, a simple projection of fatherly affection because that´s something familiar to him and something which is more suitable for their work relationship, closer to a relationship like a mentor towards his protégé. Further down, there´s more. I won´t say he loves him like a lover, but it could go that way if pushed. However, I don´t think it will. That´s a very unique mix of affection.” He bit his lips and then shook his head, clearly not really satisfied with his words. “Like I said, it´s a very unique mix. I don´t think we will break through that other than further claiming to help Reid.”

“Hotcher’s not gay.” Samuels snorted. “I don´t see him getting involved with a subordinate either. You mutant´s are full of shit.” She said and crossed her arms before her chest. Brooks took a moment to appreciate the fabric being pulled tight over her breasts, before returning his attention to the empath in the room.

 “What about her?” He didn´t comment on the analysis of Hotchner, because he da seen how often the mutant had been right. It was quite curious, he wouldn´t have thought Hotchner to be the type to bed a man. But from what he´s seen, Reid was not really just male. He wondered if Hotchner knew about that. The profiler had been very effective in avoiding his question.

“She´s- “ The empath smiled and Brooks almost wanted to flinch away because it was such a rare sight to see him smile so genuine. “- very affectionate. In any kind. You don´t come across such a person very often.” He said and looked quite smitten with Penelope Garcia for a moment. “And it´s not just on the surface. She will be very eager to help him, but we need to convince her she´ll be really helping him. Otherwise we will have a very protective person against us. And you can trust me when I tell you, you don´t want her to be your enemy. “

Brooks would have guessed to hear this about any of them, except for Garcia. He was suddenly very grateful to have Thomas here to warn him, he might have underestimated her otherwise.

“She´s very fierce and passionate about protecting Reid. All of them are, but I think she will probably be the most impulsive one.” Thomas continued.   

“Huh… “ Brooks thought the information over. “If you had to go to any of them, which one would you pick?”

“I´d say Hotchner.” Samuals said. “He´s calm and the leader. He´d provide guidance. And from all of them, he has the most power to protect someone.”

Thomas gave her a pitying look.

“No. I do think he is an option, but so are any of them. We don´t know enough about Reid’s feeling towards them to judge his reaction. Each one of them could provide Reid with something helpful.”

Brooks wanted to bash his head against the screen. This was not helpful at all.

“Ok. I want surveillance on all of them.” He decided. “And I want mutants. These damn profilers will probably notice a regular agent faster than the agent will spot them.” Even if just one party actually had descriptions. He still wanted to chew out the men who had observed Reid’s apartment and lost the agent. It was time to have a chat with them.

 

* * *

 

Garcia was quietly leaving the building. There were no questions, when she got into Derek’s SUV and they drove to her apartment. She knew Spencer was probably not there anymore, but she still hoped he might be. That he contacted this Brad through a phone.

Knowing about the unlikeliness of this, she was just slightly disappointed when Morgan searched her apartment and came up with nothing.

“I will have to ask him where he hid himself and how he got out.” Morgan said, as Garcia typed on her laptop, before closing it. “Sorry baby girl, but your apartment was searched.”

That upset her more than she wanted to admit. It was her private stuff. Someone going through it without permission let her feel somewhat violated.

 “Let´s get out of here.” She said, her voice hardening, as she packed he equipment.

They didn´t even need to agree on Rossi’s place being their base of operation. It was big and without any family members. They had a lot to discuss.

 

* * *

 

“Hotch.” Prentiss said as soon as the man in question entered Rossi’s living room. All of them had made their preparation. They couldn’t do anything to obvious, but Hotch had dropped off Jack at J.J.s place, where will would watch over both boys and take them to a camping trip if necessary. Morgan’s mother had promised to look out for anything unusual, but would continue her daily routine until she received further messages. Leaving Jack with Will was already risky, but Hotch didn´t want to place his sister in law into danger and Will was an officer who had picked up quite a few observation skills from his wife and a lot of dirty tricks from his time in New Orleans. Not even J.J. was aware of how he had acquired such skills or why, but they all knew Will was talented beyond the protocol police requirements.  

Nodding to Prentiss, the team leader put the shopping bags on the counter and pulled out drinks for all of them. Rossi was in the kitchen, watching a pot of something which smelled absolutely delicious to all of them.

“I didn´t see anyone, but I´m sure they are observing us.” Rossi said in his calm voice. To anyone looking through the windows, his body language seemed to give away a man trying to explain his cooking as his gestures are pointing towards the various ingredients. Best to make this appear like a regular meeting, with cooking and wine and good conversation. Something they actually do every once in a while. Just usually with partners and children included.

The door opened and Morgan and Garcia entered the house.

“Good thing baby girl swipes your house for bugs regularly.” Morgan said as soon as the door was close. “We were followed. I didn´t see any of the guys who where in the bureau, but I’m pretty sure you don´t usually have any surveillance cars in your street.”

“No, I don´t.” Rossi confirmed, as he turned his back to the window. His eyes went to Penelope Garcia.

“He was with you, wasn´t he?” Rossi asked and Garcia didn´t even ask how he knew about it. She had told Morgan on their way to her apartment. But Morgan had not been surprised at all.

“Yeah.” She said and fell into his couch. “He heard me telling the guy I was about to go on a date.”

“So that´s why the stories matched.” Prentiss concluded.

“Does anyone know anything about this Brad?” Morgan wanted to know, crossing his arms in a subconcioius gesture as if to try and intimidate any strange men who might come near Spencer or  Penelope.

“I‘ve started a search when we were at my apartment.” She announced. “The phone number which called me belongs to one Bradley Wilks.” She said and reached for the remote of Rossi’s television, while both Morgan and Prentiss went to the windows to close the blinds. They moved slower on purpose. Just before they were closed, the TV switched on, displaying the starting screen of Doctor Who.

“Clear.” Morgan said and instantly, the picture changed to the driving license of a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties. 

“Huh… yeah. I could see myself dating that guy.” Garcia said in appreciation. Bradley Wilks appeared average in hair color and eye-color, both being a warm brown, but there was a certain charm about him. Faint wrinkles around the mouth and eyes were prominent enough to show that Wilks must be someone who smiled a lot. He was rather tall, according to his file even a bit taller than Reid and worked as an architect who also lead construction works.

“Why would Spencer have chosen him?” J.J. asked, as she sat down to read the added information next to the pictures.

“It looks like Brad here is also doing some voluntary work across the city. Youth centers, homeless shelter, retirement centers… Free of charge.”

“He must be connected to the mutant community.”  Rossi pointed out as he carried a pot from the kitchen over to the dining table. Instantly, both Prentiss and J.J. hurried over to help him set up the table.

“We already know these places are used by mutants as safe houses.” Hotch said as he skipped over the information displayed. It was a well known fact amongst the government’s agencies. The problem was that they rarely found out which places were connected to mutant organizations before the mutants abandoned them. 

“So, my guess would be that this guy knows about at least one shelter. And Reid´s hiding there.” Morgan said, frowning. “So pretty boy _does_ have a connection to mutants we didn´t know about.”  

Instantly, all eyes went to Hotch, who sighed.

“He didn´t tell me he was a mutant.” The dark haired man said. “We both know I would have been questioned for not reporting it. No matter that regulations don´t require it. But he pointed out a few… medical details. It´s not something which initially classifies as a mutation, but it´s private for Reid.” He elaborated and when the silence stretched, the team got the hint that Hotch would leave things private unless he absolutely had to share the information.

 “Huh…” Morgan huffed and returned to the TV. “So baby girl is meeting that guy and he´ll tell us how to stay in contact with him.”

“It´s not smart for Spencer to be seen while Agent Brooks is looking for him.” Rossi agreed, who had also noticed that there was no emphasis on finding Reid. Obviously none of them wanted to bring Spencer in.

“Uhm…” Garcia shifted in her seat. “I´m not saying I´m trusting that guy, but… what if Spencer really is in trouble?” She looked around, finding the rest of them staring at her.

“It´s not the first time Spence would be in trouble.” J.J. agreed reluctantly. They all trusted Spencer’s ability to judge a situation and profile someone, but none of them were without any fails and if Spencer didn´t deal with the leaders directly but some minions who believed they were doing something good…

They all shared a look, silently agreeing to not push the option of Brooks being right off the table.

“I´d prefer to check this myself.” Prentiss said, voicing out what all of them agreed on.

“He was with me, when they came.” Garcia suddenly said. “He wanted me to look someone up who was trying to access his medical records.” Clearly uncomfortable to reveal this, Garcia picked at her nails. “I- should I try to see what they were looking for and who was searching?” She offered, looking at Hotch. Dark eyes met hers, contemplating.

“Try to find out who. His medical records are private and let´s assume for now they were looking for sights of mutation. If we find out more and it will be necessary to look it up, we will have to do it. But for now, let´s see what we can find out about Brooks. While you look into the data, we will see what we can find out. ” He looked over to Rossi, who as a senior agent had a few more contacts in other agencies.

The Italian nodded as he placed a bottle of wine on the table, silenty offering his agreement. 

“I can try to find out more through my contacts.” Prentiss offered, referring to both her mother’s diplomatic contacts and her own contacts from her time prior her BAU-employment.

Again, Hotch seemed to contemplate the offer.

“We need to be very careful with this.” He finally said. “If you are certain it won´t reach Brooks, then go for it.”

“Oh!” Garcia suddenly said, almost jumping in her seat. “There´s something else!” She quickly typed a few lines on her laptop and the display on the TV changed to a video.

Hotch’s eyes seem to burn into her back as all of them recognized the surroundings. But when the men began to speak, everyone’s attention was drawn to the screen. After the video reached its end, it was Morgan who asked the question:

“Who is this Stryker?”

 

* * *

 

Spencer winced when a bullet scratched his shoulder, but didn´t stop as they were running through the escape tunnels.

Even though they had not looked different, the shadows in the room had suddenly become solid as the intruders tried to attack. No bullets or people were able to get through and the group of mutants had used the opportunity to escape through the kitchen, where a hidden exit led to the tunnels they were running through.

Spencer didn´t need to ask who was responsible for the hindrance, but it must have taken a lot of concentration from Shadow to do what he did. He man he had been fighting with had easily regained control – until Spencer had shoved his claws into his neck. Judging by the angle the bullets had stopped in the air, these men had aimed to kill both Dylan and the girl and probably didn´t aim for Shadow only for the reason of their team member being in the way.

Protective instinct had taken over and Spencer attacked without any hesitation. He knew that later on, he might regret it, but Shadows attacker won´t survive the fight. Dylan and the girl were running on their own, but every slip in Shadows concentration led to bullets getting through and no matter how much Spencer tried to shelter him, one couldn´t simply run without paying attention to their surroundings.

It led to a curious combination of running and being more or less sheltered against their attackers who were faster who didn´t have any hindrances.

“There!” Dylan cried out, running through the door.

“I need you to block the tunnel in front of the door behind us.” Spencer said to Shadow. “Trust me, I´ll lead you.”

The man, concentration heavy on his face, nodded and closed his eyes to further his focus on the shadows. It left Spencer in charge of leading and protecting him and the young feral quickly stepped between himself and the man as the shadows around them flickered as the mutants control shifted their density. It left enough of a gap to let a few bullets through.

Another bullet hit his hip and Spencer bit back a painful cry. His shoulder was already healing, but his hip would bother him for a bit. As he pushed Shadow further towards the door, the raining of bullets stopped and looking back, he could see them stuck in the shadows.

Sweat was starting to build on Shadow´s face, but the door they closed was a safety door. It would take time for them to get through it.

“Yes!” The Dylan shouted out, as the door heavily fell close and the locks snapped into place.

“Ok, you can let go know.” Spencer said silently to Shadow, who let out a relieved breath, shaking from exhaustion the minute he let go of his talent.

“That was close.” The man said.

“Too close.” Dylan said silently and Spencer flinched when he saw the girl lying on the ground, her hand pressed against her side. Limping over as fast as he could, he reached out for her hand to examine the wound. A little whine escaped her lips out when he carefully lifted her hand away and pulled her shirt away.

“Doesn´t look so good.” Shadow said as he stepped closer.

“It´s not as bad as it looks either.” Spencer said once he saw the exit wound. “The bullet went through and I don´t think her kidneys were hit.”

Dylan let out a relieved sigh and quickly pulled off his scarf to give it to Spencer.

The girl was quietly sobbing as they bandaged her wound quickly.

“We need to leave.” Shadow said, bending down to pick her up, shoving Spencer aside who was about to do the same.

“You were hit as well.” He scolded, but Spencer shrugged.

“It´s healing already.” He looked down to the no longer bleeding wound. A sharp spike of pain hit him when he stood up again. Tightening his lips to not let out a sound of pain, he noticed the way the other two were watching him.

“Let´s go.”

He might have a good healing factor, but Spencer was still grateful when Dylan came up to him and reached around his shoulders to offer support. 

They were back on the run. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably already noticed but Garcia is one of my favs :) I love her!  
> Also, not much longer until the X-Men enter the fic.


	6. Chapter 6

“Now that´s what I call a pleasant surprise.” Bradley winked at the blonde woman who met him at the entry. Obviously, she already knew him, but he had not seen her yet. Sadly, Garcia was not in the mood to flirt or joke around. Her teammates safety was at stake and while she did smile at greeting him, it was a bit strained.

“Let´s go inside. We need some privacy.” She said and when he offered his arm, she instantly hooked her hand into his bend elbow and leaned over.

They had decided for Garcia to meet her date and as they were let towards a quiet table, she felt the tension in his arm rising.

“I´m sorry, I can´t tell you where he is.” Brad said, once they were alone. “But he gave me a phone number for you to reach him. He´s bought a few burner phones.” With this, he reached over, placing his hand on hers in a seemingly romantic gesture, but she could feel the paper being pushed into her palm.

“Is he safe?” Garcia quickly, but quietly asked and was relieved when he nodded.

“He is.” He assured her and didn´t seem too surprised when she added.

“In one of your safe houses?”  

A quick smile escaped his lips.

“Spencer warned me not to underestimate you.” He praised and finally, after knowing her baby genius was safe, Garcia let herself relax a bit.

“Trust me, honey. You have no idea.” She said and winked. “Every woman has her secrets, mine just happen to involve a lot of uncomfortable situations for everyone who dares to touch my Junior-G-Man or any of my team.”

Brad’s eyebrows went up at the nickname, but then a smile spread over his lips as he reached up in an innocent gesture.

“I promise I won´t do… well I can´t say I won´t do anything you wouldn´t do. But I promise I won´t harm him.” He said and this time, Garcia´s eyebrows went up.

“Just how exactly do you know boy-genius?” She asked and his smile widened.

“Well, we used to date.” He answered and when her eyes went wide, he quickly added. “Not long. It didn´t become serious.”

The curiosity in her gaze dimmed a bit, but before they could continue, the waiter arrived handing them the menu.

“Can you-“ Garcia started, but his phone interrupted her. The sound must have been some kind of alarm, because Brad immediately tensed and reached for his phone. Looking at the display, he jumped up.

“We need to go.” He said quickly. “Now!”

Leaving the menu on the table, Garcia also got up.

“What´s happening?”

“The safe houses.” Bradley answered quietly, as he pushed her towards the exit. “They are under attack.” He looked down at his phone, which still gave one melodic tone after another. “Most of them at least.”

There was clear panic in his voice as well as confusion. The time it took him to read the message, Garcia used to walk past him and was now pulling him along with her towards her car.

“Spencer?” She asked, once seated inside. “Is he alright?”

Bradley looked up from his phone.

“I don´t know. How did they even know where -?” He broke up, quickly dialing a number and cursed, when no one picked up. There must have been a voice mail however, because the man ratted off a string of number. Code numbers for the locations, if Garcia were to guess. But it were too many to be attacked at once. Or were they?

“Brad!” Garcia shouted out as she started the vehicle. He looked up at her a dear caught in the headlines.

“They- the safe house Spencer was in. It was also attacked.” He said and quickly started to dial again.

He let out a relieved sigh when the person on the other end picked up.

“Spence-?” He stopped talking and listened. Garcia waited anxiously for him to finish the talk and only heard one part of it.

“What do you mean by – Yeah. No, keep low. Other houses had been attacked as well and I don´t know yet which ones are still safe.” He admitted with a quick glance to Garcia. After a few minutes of listening, he sighed and agreed for whoever to ‘do that.’ before he hung up.

“Well?” The woman asked, her tone not leaving any room for dodging.

“I´m only telling you this because Spencer trusts you.” Brad said, clearly uncomfortable. “They split up, Spencer gave them a phone with my number. For some reason, multiple safe houses are under attack. And that´s only the ones I know about. There might be more with other contacts. We don´t know how they found out or why they are attacking now. But with all the mutants on the run, the next few days will be crazy.”

Garcia cursed silently, before asking the one question she was most interested in.

“And Spencer?”

“On the run, just like most of the mutants.” Bradley admitted. “According to the guy I just talked with, Spencer was with two others. But they separated. From what I´ve gathered, the three suspect they might be after him. That´s the reason Spencer separated himself from them.” Bradley leaned back, before reaching for his phone again.

“Can you drop me off at my flat?” He asked. “I need to make a call and I´ve got a secured line at home.”

Garcia’s eyebrow rose, before she took out her purse and searched through it.

“You obviously don´t know who you are talking to.  So the goddess will forgive you.” She said in a generous tone of voice before pulling out a phone and shoving it into his hands.  “You won´t find any phone more secure than this, vanilla sprinkles.”

Bradley blinked and his mouth formed the words ‘vanilla sprinkles’ without actually saying it. Then he looked down at the pink and yellow, glittering phone. With a stuffed squirrel, green feathers and differently colored peals hanging from it.

Wisely not offering his opinion, the man hesitated.

“I can`t give you this number.” He said and Garcia glared at him.

“You can keep the phone.”

“Uhm… I´d rather not.”

The glare intensified and Bradley flinched before quickly dialing. Garcia felt her lips twitch, but refused to let it be shown. Instead, she asked.

“Who are you calling?”

“The cavalry.” The man answered absent-minded, before turning his attention the phone. “Hey Cyke. I think we need some firefighters here. We´ve got a cat on the tree and the dogs are already barking. Call me back.”

 

* * *

 

“Reid was at your apartment.” Rossi said as they reviewed the scenario. “He must have gotten out.”

Garcia nodded, as she typed on her laptop. Twenty minutes ago, she dropped Brad off at a corner not far from the center. The guy had her number and he promised to call her if any news came up. Of course, she did not trust him with that. She wasn´t trusting anyone except her team with Reid´s safety.

Now she haltered and looked at Rossi.

Hotch was on the phone, trying to find out more and J.J. was sitting bent over a city map with as he marked off all the places people talked bout in the police radio with red pins. Prentiss did the same, only she was doing blue pins and marking all the places the man in Garcia´s bureau was talking bout while he still didn´t know he was being watched. Morgan was out, looking for Reid at the places they suspected he might turn up. With him, he carried one of Garcia´s secure phones.

They all stopped and looked at Rossi.

“Don´t you have a gas station close to your place?” Rossi elaborated and all of them went over to Garcia as she began typing like mad.

“I do. And  that tiny little shop at my corner uses a security system which uploads it´s videos to a cloud.” No one even asked how she knew that or why it didn´t take her any time to show the video´s on screen. Instead, all of them gathered around the TV.

“Ok, here they go.” Garcia said as she started to play the video from earlier. They could see the agents entering the building and coming out with their hacker in tow. Shortly after, another group entered the building and Garcia bit her lips. These men would enter her flat in the next few minutes and wreck havoc around her private belongings.

Even though they knew what would happen, all of them let out a relieved breath as the team came out empty handed.

“There.” Prentiss said as she pointed to a them of two man splitting off. “They left someone to keep looking.”

Garcia started to now nervously chew on her lips. It took hours before Brad called her on the phone, who knew when Reid might get out.

“He´ll need some time to meet up with this Brad.” J.J. threw in as she watched. “It couldn´t be right before he called.” True. So how much did that shorten the time span? Half an hour? One hour?

“Are there any other exits to the building?”  Rossi asked as nothing seemed to happen. There were a few people walking out and entering the building. They were only interested in the first group, but so far, none of them saw somethings suspicious.

Hotch’s voice rarely carried so much surprise as the man was suddenly telling Garcia to stop the video and it wouldn´t have been necessary as she hit the pause just the same moment as their team leader spoke up.

“A woman.” Prentiss pointed out. No one answered her and she sent a quick glance to Hotch, who was staring at the screen as if lightning had struck him. A quick glance to J.J. confirmed that the other woman was just as confused and when she looked over to Rossi, the man was starring at the screen with a look of beginning understanding and amazement.

Prentiss’ gaze went back to the woman on the screen. There was something familiar about her-

All her thoughts fled her as Garcia actually squealed.

“O. M. G. That- “ Garcia pointed to the screen. “Is _my_ shirt. And _my_ bag. And _my_ shoes.” 

Sudden realization hit Prentiss and head wipped around as she looked to Garcia and then back to the screen.

“You´re kidding.”

“Spence?” J.J. brought out, sounding like a confused kitted which didn´t understand what was going on.

Rossi smiled.

“The kid is full of surprises.” He admitted and Prentiss let out a sound that reminded herself of creaking wood. On the screen was-

“That´s a woman.” She said.

“Morgan´s going to love this.” Garcia said as she cracked up. It was Hotch clearing his throat which led everyone to look up to their leader.

“This is not a topic for discussion.” Hotch chastised. “Or to make fun off.”

“Reid going in drag?” Prentiss asked and a small smile formed on her lips. It was too good to pass. Until their leader let out a small huff.

“He´s not.” The man admitted as he sat down in a chair. “It’s none of our businesses and I would have liked to keep it that way. But with the current development, I don´t think it´s wise to keep it that way.”

“So what? Spencer likes to wear dresses?” J.J. sounded like she felt she was in some kind of twilight zone and Hotchner sighed.

 “It´s not just about wearing dresses or going out as a woman.” A small smile formed on the man´s lips.  “Reid told me about this shortly after the Anthrax case and asked me to keep it quiet. There is a note in his medical files from when he joined the academy but thankfully, no one paid it much attention back then. Spencer thought it was due to the fact that no one actually expected him to pass the academy standards. Which he would have, if they had used the female one. He didn´t pass the standard for males.” 

“This is what you were talking about earlier, isn´t it?” Rossi voiced his conclussion and Hotch nodded as he elaborated.

“Why would they use the female scale for him?” Prentiss asked, no longer interested in teasing the young man. “Did he have a sex change?” It was the only thing she could think of to match this.”

“No, he didn’t.” Hotch said and smiled. “Spencer is a unisex name. At least that´s how Reid started this conversation. It´s a name you can give both male and female children, so he thought it very fitting for someone who was both.”

That stunned all of them and no one interrupted Hotchner despite the prominent pause in his words.

“I won´t repeat the correct medical term, but Spencer’s condition is best descripted as intersexed. He-“

“- is both male and female.” Rossi finished. “I´ve heard of it and I´ve even met a few people with the condition.”

“How does it-“ Prentiss haltered, unsure how to proceed. She knew theoretically that this was possible, she just never met someone with that condition.

“So Spence is a woman as well as a man?” J.J. asked, her voice clearly disappointed. “And he felt he had to hide that from us?”

“Obviously, Reid prefers the male gender in his daily life.” Rossi pointed out. “And it´s not really our business.”

“But-“ J.J. bit her lips. “I just thought he would-“ She shrugged and Garcia felt reached out for her. Prentiss threw a sympathetic look towards the blonde  profiler before she looked back at the screen.

“Okay, so we are now doing what? Telling Morgan to look for a woman as well?” She asked and thankfully, it brought the attention back to the current problem. “He´s not going to find him any easier like this, even if we sent him a picture.”

“Maybe. But maybe we can get a few more eyes to  look for him.” Garcia said, turning back to her laptop as she opened another program.

“What are you doing?” Rossi asked with a reasonable amount of curiosity and Garcia grinned.

“I gave Brad one of my secure phones.” She explained. “And I mean, they are supper secure. Against everone. Except one force on the planet.” She looked up as a phone number appeared on the screen. As Garcia hit a button and the system started to call the number, she looked like a cat who got the canary and the milk and in her sweetest tone, she finished her announcement.

“Me.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Ok, we´ve got a feral on the run.” Scott briefed his team as they prepared themselves for the mission. “Someone is already after him. Big scale and urgent.” He translated the message.

The call for firefighters was equivalent to ‘things are burning’ and the code for calling them in as soon as possible.  The cat referred to a feral. A cat on the tree meant the feral was currently out of reach of ‘the dogs’ who in this scenario were obviously the government. The reference to them barking meant that the government was making a lot of noise around this whole thing. Which was unusual, since they preferred things to be handled as quietly as possible.

“Gambit will meet us there.” Jean announced, informing the group of the thief’s whereabouts. “He´s called in almost at the same time as Brad did. The streets are in an uproar and someone is willing to pay a lot of money to get their hands on the mutant. Who is currently on the run. A bounty was set and every little pickpocket, dealer or homeless is looking. Thankfully, the description Remy got was not very clear. It’s varying in a lot of aspects.”

“They don´t have a description of who they are looking for?” Bobby asked. “Is it a shape shifter?”

It was Ororo who answered the question by shaking her head.

“We are not a hundred percent sure.” Scott elaborated. “But according to Brad, it´s a feral without shifting ability. Nothing like Mystique.”

“Thanks god for that.” Bobby sounded relieved and Logan snorted when shortly after that, Iceman blinked. “So, what are we looking for?”

Scott hesitated as he sent a careful look towards Logan. The feral’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Something was going on.

“According to Remy, there are two descriptions, but we aren´t sure if it´s the same person or if they are actually looking for two people. The first one is a tall and thin male feral with brown hair. The other one is a tall and lean woman with reddish hair.”

Logan snorted again, this time clearly amused.

“Yeah, that´s gonna work. They don´t even know if they are looking for a boy or girl.”

“And neither do we.” Ororo said and the feral grimaced. “The first description went out hours ago, the second one came up only after the safehouses were attacked. It could be the same person. The male description was out first, but according to Brad, we should actually look for a woman. But he also said we shouldn´t completely abandon the search for the man. Accoring to Brad, they are both the same person.”  

“You mean a guy is running around in drag?” Bobby asked and send a horrified look to kitty, who was starting to blush.

Logan´s lips pulled up in a smile, but it might be due to the fact that his hearing was good enough to pick up on the muttered “Good thing Gambit´s not here.” coming from Scott.  

“Logan-“ Jean started and the Wolverine looked over to her. Whatever she wanted to say, she didn´t get very far, because the emergency phone Scott connected to the bird went off. They all went silent as their leader picked up.

“Yes?”

“This the mutant rescuing cavalry?” A female voice sounded, and all of their eyebrows went up. Scott frowned and shook his head at their questioning glance. HE didn´t recognize the voice either.

“Who is this?” He demanded to know and send a quick glance to Jean, who picked a Laptop she quickly plugged into the bird.

“This is the office of supreme genius, ready to kick your ass if you don´t get it moving.” The woman said and Bobby chocked on what was probably his own spit, since he didn´t drink anything at that time.

Logan chuckled, less because of the announcement but rather because of the look on Scotts face. Jean frowned as she typed on her laptop. Clearly, she was becoming increasingly frustrated.

“Don´t bother, honey. You won´t be able to trace me. Is just told you, supreme genius. That equals ‘ahead of you’. And that equals ‘your tracing algorithm is not going to work’. Period. I suggest you start listening to me.”

Jean sent a murderous glare towards the speaker, before she flipped the laptop shut with more force than necessary.

Scott send a look to the redheaded woman next to him. They could just hang up. Which didn´t sit well with any of them, since they didn´t know how this ‘supreme genius’ had acquired this phone number. So, sighing in defeat, he said the words he hoped he won´t regret later.

“All right. I´m listening.”

 

* * *

 

Spencer was exhausted from running around the city and changing locations. He knew of a few contacts who provided shelter for mutants, but he couldn´t contact all of them. Some of these people only knew his male and some only knew his female side. Brad had been the only one knowing both forms.

While dressed as a woman, Spencer couldn´t go to the first part of the group and with the rest, he didn´t have any luck. He could already make out that multiple attacks had occurred and he didn´t dare contact his team. They were under surveillance after all.

So he switched between different hide outs. Abandoned buildings and places usually frequented by homeless people. It worked for a few hours. Until the message came across that someone was willing to pay a bounty and looking the way he did, some people were at least willing to give it a shot if the description fit even loosely. Just the slightest chance at getting a reward was motivating enough for some people to try their luck. They had nothing to lose, after all. After the encounter in Brad’s safe house, the description by now probably matched both his genders.

He might have better chances going to the places addicts frequented, because most of them were too high to care, but this was even more risky. Spencer didn´t want to run into a dealer who might recognize him and think he was running around in drag. And he also tried to steer clear of any dealers and their goods in general. Which limited his options to a few selected places of which most were outdoors or in unheated buildings with no electricity or water supply. By now it was dawning and the darkness provided an additional blanket of security against being spotted.

Maybe that was why he felt it safe enough to go to one of the food vendors. He now regretted not having eaten anything at the safe house. On the other hand, even if he had taken Shadow up on his offer, there wouldn’t have been enough time to eat before they were attacked.

Knowing that these men were most likely after him, he sent the other mutants off to one of the doctors he knew. Hoping that the man was still safe and willing to threat a mutant and keep quiet. One of the phones he bought wouldn´t switch ups again, it must have been damaged during the attack. The other one he gave Shadow after making the man memorize Brad´s number. It left him without a phone, but he wanted to give them the best possible chances and he still had some money left to buy new ones.

His most current need however was buying food and then he would look out for a phone booth first before he tried and called someone again. The question was only who to call. His attackers proved to be very well organized and persistent and paranoia was slowly taking over his thoughts. Calling his team was risky, their phone calls might be either listened into or traced. Brad was burned as well now, since he had met with Garcia. His other contacts had proven to be under attack in most cases or he couldn´t turn up there as a woman. After so many hours on the run or a highly active group and with a bounty on his head, Spencer was more and more willing to abandon that last criteria. He had his reasons for not showing these contacts his female side, but he was also running out of options. As he ordered a double sized meal at the street vendor – he didn´t know when he would get the chance again after all- Spencer contemplated which of his contacts to call to minimize the damage.  He quickly picked up the package of food and turned around to leave as fast as possible.

“Now look a that. Must be our lucky day.” A voice from behind him called and Spencer felt his stomach drop when he turned around to see a group of at least six men grin at him. By the looks of it, it had to be some kind of street gang. One with a bad standing, if their clothes and hygiene was anything to go by. “Doesn´t that look just like the bird someone is looking for?” The voice of the man in the middle continued and the guy to his left grinned, revealing yellow teeth in bad condition.

“I´d say it does.” The man said with a whistling voice, as if his vocal cords had been damaged. On closer inspection, Spencer saw a thin white line running over his throat and a chill went down his spine at the thought that someone must have tried to cut the man´s throat at some point. And the guy survived it. He tensed when the man pulled out a knife and the rest of the group quickly followed, pulling out various weapons.

“Why don´t you come here, birdy?” The first speaker said, gesturing for Spencer to come to him as he pointed his gun at the profiler.

 


End file.
